Knowledge co-production as a new research method in modern science

The paper considers the concept of knowledge co-production; its development in science started in the beginning of the 21st century. Knowledge co-production is understood as the process of creating new scientifically based information using involvement of the non-academic community representatives in the process of obtaining and producing knowledge. The paper notes that emergence of the knowledge co-production concept is associated with transition to a new paradigm of scientific research based on the transdisciplinarity principle, where science passes beyond the boundaries of academic disciplines and becomes a form of the social production. The need for knowledge co-production is due to a necessity to respond to global challenges and solve the related political, economic, environmental, social and other problems. The paper shows that the knowledge co-production concept gains highest popularity in the sustainable development studies. From a theoretical point of view, interaction between scientists and stakeholders in the knowledge production involves public participation at all stages of the scientific research starting from the research program development to the results interpretation. In practice, knowledge co-production is associated with a number of problems related to the stakeholders’ heterogeneity, ways of involving the non-academic community representatives in the research process, communication and building a dialogue between the participants and responsibility for reliability of the results obtained. The paper concludes that, despite the methodological difficulties, the approach based on knowledge co-production could be used as a new way in understanding complex global problems and making management decisions based on it.

EDN CHSJOF

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